This idea struck me, and since I had a little free time this morning, I decided to type it up. Basically, now that TES has a perk system, I thought it might be interesting to take a page from New Vegas' book and include some Starting Perks to increase costumization early in the game. This isn't a system designed for any current game; just a hypothetical future game. In this version, the PC begins as a Daedra worshipper (perhaps imprisoned for such, in keeping with tradition). The player gets to choose which Daedra his character worships/worshipped (could play as an Atoner, like Martin Septim, if he desires). This choice grants a particular starting perk and may influence other aspects of the game.

As examples, here's what I've thought of. Didn't put much thought into balance issues. If you have any ideas for perks which would be better suited for the particular Daedra (or ideas for Perks for Aedra-worshipping players), I'd love to hear them. Commentary in Spoilers, usually explaining things that aren't immediately clear.

Azura’s Blessing: All Abilities increase +25% faster during the twilight hours; 5% of saluaging Soul Gems after use; Starting Spell: Starlight



Boethiah’s Blessing: All Lies twice as likely to succeed; May attempt Lies a second time if first attempt fails; 5% Chance to gain Sneak Attack bonus while in open combat; Starting Spell: Frenzy


Clavicus Vile’s Blessing: 10% better prices on all items; Persuasion increases Speech twice as much as usual; Starting Spell: Charm


Hermaeus Mora’s Blessing: Skill books provide a temporary +10 bonus for 4 hours after reading, in addition to the usual permanent +1 bonus; Boosted skill increases +10% faster for duration; +50% better prices on books; Starting Spell: Clairvoyance

Hircine’s Blessing: Predatory beasts will not attack unless provoked; Eating meat provides twice as much Health or Stamina; +50% better prices on animal parts. Starting Spell: Call Wolf

Jyggalag’s Blessing: +10% Magic Resistance; +10% Damage Resistance; Starting Spell: Dispel


Malacath’s Blessing: Power attacks cost -10% Stamina, inflict +10% Damage; Starting Spell: Feather


Mehrunes Dagon’s Blessing: Weapon Abilities and Destruction increase +5% faster; +25% Damage to guards and soldiers; Starting Spell: Flame


Mephala’s Blessing: Sneak Attacks do twice as much damage; Poisoned weapons last twice as long; Starting Spell: Muffle


Meridia’s Blessing: +25% Damage to Undead; Soul Gems provide +10% Magicka for recharging; Starting Spell: Detect Life

Molag Bal’s Blessing: May peacefully interact with Vampires without becoming one; Intimidation and Bribe increases Speech twice as much as usual, but Persuation increases Speech only half as much; Bribes cost -50% less; Starting Spell: Command


Namira’s Blessing: All Abilities increase +10% in Caves and Mines; Eating insects and mushrooms doubles positive effects and ignores negative effects; Starting Spell: Extinguish


Nocturnal’s Blessing: All Abilities increase +10% faster at night; all Bounties gained at night reduced by 25%; 5% chance that new Bounty will be dropped if never caught by Guards before next sunset. Starting Spell: Call Raven


Peryite’s Blessing: +25% Disease resistance; 25% chance to infect attacker in melee range with random disease, increase to 50% if currently infected with a disease; diseases automatically purged at 24 hours; Starting Spell: Infection


Sanguine’s Blessing: Alcohol and drugs have +50% positive effects and -50% negative effects; all effects last twice as long; Starting Spell: Merriment


Sheogorath’s Blessing: Bizarre and unexpected events seem to stalk the player; Starting Spell: Madness


Vaermina’s Blessing: Never gains Rested bonuses; +10 Magicka per hour slept, decreasing by -10 Magicka for every hour thereafter. Starting Spell: Dreamcatcher

Interesting ideas. Some are overpowered some underpowered. Mind if a make a mod maybe including some of these?

Bethesda'a Blessing: Removes Perks from the game and adds Attributes. Starting benefit: Roleplayability.

Right, because making it possible to choose your special abilities instead of having them preselected makes it HARDER to roleplay... :rolleyes:

What games did you play? I recall in both MW and OB choosing Major skills (plus Minor in MW) and preferred Attributes, which gave the character a "focus" right from the start. Of course, if you took the shortcut and just picked a cheezy premade class, you got what you deserved. In Morrowind, you actually could change course completely in mid-game, but it took a while to get back on track. Oblivion's excessive scaling made it harder to catch up. The only things that I felt badly needed overhauling were the annoying "multiplier" system (several mods in both MW and OB solved that nicely) and the problem that Attributes increased more and more quickly as the game progressed, making it far too easy to max them out. I really wouldn't mind if they hardly changed at all (as in FO3), as long as you had the ability to set them on character creation.

Now, all characters start out as the same generic blank slate, which seriously limits who or what your chracter is; so you've got to spend the first few levels fixing that before "RP" really starts. To me, "less" is not "more". I guess if you just want to play a stupid Nord Barbarian and run around killing dragons, the new system is fine.

... You start out a blank slate, which limits who your char is, so you fix that by leveling BEFORE you rp.

Am I the only one who finds that statement ridiculous?

A religious perk would be nice, and I like the ideas you've put forward.

I like the idea, though some of them could be changed. I'd also love Sheogorath's perk to be more random, as in it could potentially cause any spell, both harmful and beneficial to your target (like accidentally healing them or fortifying their armor), but would always be seen as a form of assault.

Also I'd like a "redemption" option, where the player could join any temple of the nine divines (or eight, if Talos continues to be outlawed. In which case, he'll have a "secret" temple), and by joining these/accepting that perk instead, it'll remove the daedric perk for an aedric perk. However, joining a new temple will take away any other aedric perk you may have gotten.

I've got some ideas:
Akatosh: Gives the player the ability to force his reaction time to increase, allowing him to see the world more slowly. However, the player's movement is still affected by time at a normal rate (you move slower too). This would be great for archers who need to lead a quick opponent, or can't react quickly enough. It'd also be similar to the block perk that slows down time when a critical strike is about to happen. Also for balancing reasons, this effect would only last for a few seconds.
Arkay: Grants the player a temporary "shield" that protects them from all types of attacks, both physical and magical. The shield would "break" as more strikes are thrown upon the player, and the effect would only reduce damage from each slightly; not making the player invulnerable. This would be great, as unlike other "shield" spells, it wouldn't be limited to only physical attacks (like the old Shield spell), or simply destruction spells (fire shield, frost shield, shock shield).
Dibella: Grants the player a temporary bonus to speech. This ability would ONLY work on conversations, not bartering, however. It would essentially give the player a higher chance of getting information out of someone.
Julianos: Grants the player a temporary bonus to all magic fields. This ability would allow weaker spell skills to become stronger for a brief period of time, or simply make stronger spell skills even more stronger, for a brief duration.
Kynareth: Grants the player a temporary speed boost in attacking with weapons, and a temporary increase to bow damage (since she's in control of the wind). This would not effect magical attacks, however. So no faster fireballs.
Mara: Grants the player a temporary higher resistance to illusion-based attacks ('cause seriously, enemies should also be able to use that against us, not just NPCs). This could also open the door for illusion-resistant spells and items for both the player and the NPC.
Stendarr: Grants the player a temporary movement speed incrase. Basically you can now sprint much, much faster for a brief period of time, or get to/away from opponents much faster. However, the effects only last for about 15 seconds.
Talos: Grants the player a "rally" ability, which temporarily alows the player to force weaker-leveled enemies to help fight for him against a stronger opponent. However if the opponent isn't killed in enough time, they'll quickly turn back against the opponent.
Zenithar: Grants the player a temporary increase to bartering abilities and an increase to critical chances (for the combat-oriented player). Unlike Dibella, this would work for bartering, but only for bartering issues, not speech issues.

Those aren't necessarily the best ideas, just some ones I thought of throwing out there.

Also, I wouldn't mind seeing attributes brought back either. As long as they're implemented correctly, and varied correctly (Strength of x versus Strength of y), it'd be a great implementation. Maybe a higher Strength will allow players to decapitate/dismember opponents instead of a perk for it, and would give an incentive to increase your Strength. A higher Endurance means you can attack resist combat attacks much better (similar to Shield or Fortify Armor, only constant), and can heal slightly faster. A high Willpower will allow you to resist Illusion-based spells and also cast them at a stronger level. Luck would reduce critical failures (i.e. weapons breaking) and increase critical chances. Intelligence would allow spells to be cast for a lower amount of magicka, and grant a stronger resistance to destruction-based magic attacks. Speed would allow you to do power attacks for less stamina and sprinting would drain your stamina at a slower rate. Personality would deal with speech checks and bartering-related instances, and would also grant a higher chance of "calming" hostile enemies (only certain kinds though). Don't know what to do with Agility, unless it's merged with Speed, though.

But attributes could help out TES VI. But only if they are varied and implemented correctly.

Because you go into an RPG with an idea of the character you'd like to play. Having all skills start at what is effectively 0 counteracts that. Sure, it's still possible to roleplay as a blank slate, but in Morrowind if you wanted to roleplay as a dashing swashbuckler or somesuch, you'd obviously pick speech and long blade off the bat. You wouldn't have to spend forever getting your speech up.

the perks have alwasy been in the game, they just made them more visible in skyrim so that people would think they added something new.

Not exactly, they added perk TREES in skyrim. That's different.

And perks didn't exist in Morrowind. You never got special bonuses, just a steady increase in overall ability.

@Kovacius:
I played a game in which if you wanted your character to be a pure destruction mage, your destruction magic always got the same steady increase. Now, we can chose what KIND of destruction magic, what benefits our skills give us, etc. In Morrowind, I was always just as good at frost spells as at fire spells. Now I can say "My Dunmer prefers fire magic, I'm going to specialize there".

In oblivion, lock-picking always made the same improvements. Drop one less pin. Never break picks.

Now I can choose if lockpicking increases my speed, accuracy, etc. in many specific ways.

The system may not be perfect, but it's actually MORE customizable than morrowind and oblivion.


Oh, and what if you wanted to be well-balanced in EVERYTHING in morrowind? Good luck.

Yeah, like I said, I didn't put much thought into balancing them. If any modders would like to take a shot at it, they're more than welcomed! I'd love to see how others would put the concept into practice.


Even if Attributes were re-introduced, I don't see why Perks would have to go away. Fallout manages nicely with both. Though if Attributes were re-introduced, I'd hope they'd go for an alternate leveling system. Preferably not Fallout's or the previous TES system. I think I'd prefer something more akin to what Skyrim has now, but replacing Health/Magicka/Stamina with the Attributes, and picking 2-3 each level (independent of which skills you increased).


I'll admit, this was a concern of mine when I heard Skyrim got rid of Classes, but now that I've played it (admittedly, only with two characters so far), the system seems to work just fine for me. If I want to play a thief, I start sneaking, lockpicking, and pickpocketing early and often, as a thief would; my Orc master craftsman started gathering supplies and forging weapons and armor early and often. In short order, the characters become quite distinct from each other. Now I don't miss Classes at all.


Thanks! I was also considering that a Perk like this would have other affects on the game. Like marking the Daedra's shrine on your map from the beginning for fast travel. Or you might have various factions try to recruit you earlier. If you were a devotee of Nocturnal, for example, you'd have Thieves' Guild members attempting to recruit you, or if your were a devotee of Hircine you might get earlier access to werewolf content.


I was thinking something along the same lines. Aedra perks available later for joining the Temple; also the ability to swap out your starting Daedra perk by jumping ship and joining up with another Prince. You'd keep your starting spell and wouldn't pick up the other one. Those you have to learn from members of that cult, or elsewhere.


:thumbsup: